Metro Manila is no longer the lone center in the country that is piquing the interest of businesses.

Investors are now looking to the south for their new ventures, and for a reason: the Northern Mindanao center that is Cagayan de Oro boasts of close trade links with other provinces in the country, as well as with Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Cagayan de Oro has also notably remained in the National Competitiveness Council’s list of most competitive cities in the country for three years now, and in the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines’ list of New Wave Cities, which identified prospective hubs that can serve as alternative investment destination for outsourcing companies.